1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method of eradicating vegetation through the application of a fluorescein dye to the vegetation, thereby resulting in an effective, cost efficient, quick acting and safe means of disposing of undesirable or hazardous vegetation.
2. Description of the Prior Art
The need to eliminate undesirable vegetation is encountered in a vast array of industries at various levels. For instance, undesirable vegetation includes vegetation that the weekend gardener characterizes as weeds. Of greater concern, however, would be vegetation that exhibits uncontrollable, rapid growth such as the fast growing vine Kudzu which takes over telephone poles, power lines, virtually all landscape including trees and anything else in its path. Aside from domestic weeds and other plant life which exhibits uncontrollable growth, undesirable vegetation further includes unlawful vegetation such as the marijuana, coca and poppy plants. For all of these various types of vegetation, it would be highly desirous to have a cost efficient, quick acting, easy-to-apply and nontoxic method of eradication.
The eradication of the marijuana plant by law enforcement officials is of particular importance and difficulty, thereby requiring a new effective eradication means in this industry. Currently, an extensively used method of eradication involves manual removal of the vegetation which has numerous disadvantages. This type of eradication is expensive, time consuming, and most of all dangerous. Manual removal requires the marijuana plants to be cut down and either hauled away to often distant loading trucks outside inaccessible fields, or burned on the growing site. These activities carry with them the dangers of swinging machetes, heat exhaustion, confrontations with poisonous snakes and the need to use large quantities of flamable fuel to burn the green plants. The extensive burning of marijuana fields can lead to uncontrollable brush fires and excessive air pollution. Additionally, cultivation of marijuana plants by growers is a highly profitable business, and many growers arm themselves heavily in order to protect their crops. It is not uncommon for growers in the drug industry to use snipers and high tech booby-traps in an effort to protect their crop and intimidate federal officials.
Another method of eradication often used by the government in its fight against the drug trade as well as farmers, involves the use of herbicides. While nontoxic herbicides are preferable, their general ineffectiveness leads to the more frequent use of toxic herbicides. Unfortunately, these highly toxic herbicides, such as Paraguat, which has been used extensively for the eradication of the marijuana plant, are undetectable by ordinary means once sprayed on the vegetation. Thus, there is nothing to prevent an unscrupulous grower from harvesting the marijuana plants and selling them to unsuspecting buyers even after contamination by Paraquat.
Beyond the drug industry, there is also the concern of using toxic herbicides in the farming and landscape industries. Toxic herbicides are known to contaminate the underground water supply which can have long term detrimental effects to the general population. Additionally, produce which has been treated with toxic herbicides must be carefully washed before human consumption.
In view of the numerous disadvantages of the present methods of vegetation eradication, a safer, more rapid method is needed. Applicant's method is highly effective and overcomes many of the dangers involved with prior methods of eradication. Further, applicant's method, which incorporates the use of a fluorescein dye, facilitates safe and easy application, provides discoloration of the harmful vegetation such that its treatment is highly noticeable, and reacts quickly to kill the vegetation.
Other uses of fluorescein dye have been known as disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,781,843 which recites a process whereby a fluorescein dye is used to control algae growth in open water systems, such as water cooling towers, by absorbing and accordingly blocking the light necessary for photosynthesis, and thereby preventing algae growth. This method does not utilize or suggest direct absorption through the roots of vegetation resulting the death of living plant life.